Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Chasca & Kinich (Genshin Impact), Kinich (Genshin Impact) & Everyone
Characters: Kinich (Genshin Impact), Chasca (Genshin Impact)
Additional Tags: Fluff and Angst, Team Bonding, Dreams and Nightmares, Past Child Abuse, the others are here too, but only briefly, minor spoilers for 5.3, but nothing majorly lore relevant so it's kinda safe
Series: Part 4 of The Saurian Quartet
Summary:
After the party at the People of the Springs, Chasca can't help but ask Kinich a question. Regarding the aspect of their recent dreams.
Finished the Natlan AQ and Idk how to explain it but Natlan is the only nation where I grew an attachment to the nation itself rather than any one particular character in general.
One thing I liked about this nation is that despite the fact that like Fontaine, a plan to save the nation was already in place before the Traveler arrived there, however, unlike Fontaine, it didn't make the Traveler's presence feel like a passerby or a member of the audience.
It felt like their decisions and their contributions mattered. That the praise they received by the characters and npcs in Natlan was actually earned rather than glazing the MC just to make players feel important.
I think a consequence of Natlan being so late into the game (second last to Snezhnaya) is that they needed to shove as many answers about Teyvat and start tying all the plot points together to set up the endgame, which lead to not enough time spent on the main cast of characters.
The key theme of "No one fights alone" actually feels like it means something, and they actually live up to that and you get to see the contributions of the other characters, and not just the playable ones in your final fight with the abyss. Makes your victory feel earned.
I feel like people comparing it to Fontaine shouldn't really be doing it. It's not a fair comparison cause Natlan isn't going for the same thing as Fontaine did. They're two different stories, if they just did rehash of Fontaine it'd just be boring.
Natlan didn't reach the emotional highs that Fontaine did, but that's fine because not every nation needs to be an emotional sobfest. It's okay, to have a happy/hopeful ending sometimes.
(Although ngl Capitano's sacrifice got me a little teary eyes. MY GOAT!)
At the end of the day Natlan was about humanity coming together to fight against impossible odds and finding hope to continue fighting for a better tomorrow. Which they succeeded in conveying.
People will call the "power for friendship" thing corny, but imo y'all are just miserable and bitter. Cause fuck what all of you say, cause humans coming together to support each to defeat an godlike entity is hype as hell!
One thing that did strike me in 5.3 was how, when the group was sharing that they'd recently dreamed about the relatives or friends they'd lost- Kinich doesn't say anything.
And everyone who has read his character story knows why he wouldn't.
He can't talk about his father chasing him down in a drunken rage, only to fall to the bottom of a ravine.
He can't talk about the way rope burned the skin of his hands raw as he, a boy, pulled his father's corpse back up the cliff.
He can't talk about the way its 'almost' implied he subconsciously rejected receiving an Anemo vision because he hated the freedom that came with his father's death. Because solitude felt lonelier and more painful than being beaten.
He can't talk about his stiff relationship with mora and everything that comes with it because he knows what it's like to scrape by, alone, living off the land.
I'm so depressed, but the absolute shit that Capitano went through for 500 years, king deserves some f*cking rest. Taking on the burden of thousands of souls, never being able to sleep because of their agony, cursed with immortality just to keep going -
And then giving the biggest middle finger one could possibly give to Ronova and making an eternal heaven for both Natlan and his people - a real f*cking chad.
While I'm still depressed and pissed, I still think they executed this perfectly and gave him a beautiful send off. I'd rather he be free then suffer just because we want him alive.
I doubt this is the end of his story though. His consciousness is merged with the lord of the night, not "gone". Will he be revived in another way? Would he even want to be? God I just hope they don't do something f*cked up like experiments with his body - Dottore I'm watching you.
(ngl though I am still a bit pissed about how much I saved because I thought he'd be playable ... And now my stupid heart is like "keep saving anyway you never know what Hoyo will pull out of their ass")
Spoilers for the version 5.3 natlan archon quest below the cut
What the fuck
What the hell was that piece of flaming garbage
What power of friendship bullshit was that
I loved the war in 5.1 so much
That was so well done
I was so excited for this
There are so many issues with natlan and this shit archon quest was the final nail in the coffin
WE DIDN'T EVEN ASK ABOUT OUR SIBLING
The captain was literally the only vaguely interesting part
Even the cut scenes were mediocre
Not to mention how un-immersive it was without the voice acting.
The VAs have all the right to strike, but hoyoverse as a company should figure something out bcs not having voiceovers in cutscenes is just unacceptable and it's unfair to the English audio players (this is shade to hoyo not the VAs)
Not to mention the fucking hentai energy from their character designs. Why does citlali look younger than kachina, an actual child. Why is mavuika's uglyass suit literally seconds away from flashing someone
WHY ARE THEY SO PALE THAT THEY ARE GLOWING???
This is low, even for hoyoverse
And that goddam motorcycle
I could write an entire essay on how they horrendously fumbled the entire concept of natlan. Please it is so easy to make them have regionally advanced equipment without undermining the logical rules of teyvat.
Why are their technology literally copy-paste rather than fantasy based like the akasha and meka
That quest was such bullshit
They just gave up completely and was like 'here if you want it so bad'
The build up was acceptable, I was actually feeling citlali's sadness
Then you give me genuinely bullshit power of friendship solution
I'm so done
Sumeru culturally was a mess but at least the archon quest was amazing
I saw someone on tiktok say that the characters don't seem to have any close relationship to each other, making their connection through the traveler alone and that explains a lot of why I felt less invested. Like they barely seem to know each others name.
Natlan as a region feels really half-assed
Like they had something, especially with the war sequence bcs it fucked me up in such a good way, but they got tired of it in the end and just threw the easiest bullshit explanation and called it a day
The inazuma archon quest was probably my least favourite, mostly bcs i was binging my way through all the quests bcs I started a bit before sumeru. But even then it wasn't bad, just ok and mediocre compared to some others, but this quest was genuinely shit
